Welcome to the Family
by themackattack90
Summary: The mother and father of a muggleborn wizard agree to meet with their soon to be daughter-in-law's mother at a park in London to learn about the family their son is marrying into. They learn that when your son is going to marry Harry Potter's daughter, normal goes right out the window.
1. History Lessons

This is a Harry/Multi story, non-epilogue compliant, with a little bit of Ginny bashing. It's going to end up between 15000-17000 words when it's all said and done spread over thirteen fairly short chapters. The goal is just a quick, hopefully not boring read that people can enjoy.

And we're off!

Chapter 1: History Lessons

July, 2039

Andrew and Linda Reynolds were sitting patiently at a picnic table at a park on the south side of London, just as their son, Stephen, had requested. It was a beautiful, breezy summer day and both of them were lost in their own thoughts. They were your typical upper middle class couple from the London suburbs. Their only child, however, wasn't typical. Stephen had graduated from Hogwarts four years ago in the top 25% of his class. He was a Ravenclaw prefect and received seven NEWTs in Potions, Defense, Charms, Transfiguration, Arithmancy, History, and a relatively new elective called Ancient Studies. He was currently working at Hogwarts as the Head of Ravenclaw House while working on his mastery in History.

Shortly after the end of the Blood War, Hogwarts underwent a serious transformation. Heads of house were no longer allowed to be full time professors and instead were typically younger witches and wizards who were working on masteries and who could serve as counselors for the students. They handled detentions, house affairs, the introduction of muggleborns, and were able to keep a closer eye on the academic status of their students. Stephen loved the job.

"Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds?", a voice snapped them out of their daydreaming and they simultaneously nodded to the woman asking.

They both wondered how they missed her approaching. She was tall, slim, and regal looking with piercing blue eyes and long blonde hair dressed in a striking blue dress that was stylish, but still formal.

"My name is Daphne Black, I know you were both expecting to meet Rylie's mother, but she had a few reservations that I'll cover later on and asked me to come in her place. I hope you have some time because I have quite a lot of information to tell you about your future daughter in law's family."

"Well, we're ready whenever you are, Mrs. Black," Andrew replied with a smile.

"Wonderful! We have two topics to cover to give you some background information. We'll start with the Blood Wars, which were two successive civil wars in the British wizarding community, then we'll move on to Harry Potter, Rylie's father, and his early life and time at Hogwarts."

And so for forty-five minutes, Daphne covered all the main points of interest in reference to the Blood Wars and the Harry Potter's life before adulthood.

"...And so Harry walks out to the Forbidden Forest, straight to arguably the darkest wizard this world has ever seen, and takes a killing curse right to the chest." Daphne stopped the dab her eyes with a tissue. "I'm sorry, I always get emotional at this part, I mean he's seventeen years old and he willingly walks to what he assumes is his death because he thinks it's the only way to save everyone. It's, in my opinion, the single most powerful act of love that in the the history of the magical world." The Reynolds were both speechless, so Daphne gathers herself and continues the story culminating in the death of Lord Voldemort.

"And now," she continued, "I'll tell you about the Ancient and Noble House of Potter, and it will become clear later why this is relevant. The Potter family is old and steeped in history. Medieval royal families tended to follow a pattern when it came to sons: the oldest went into government, the second son into religion, and the third into the military. Well the Potters didn't play by those rules. Nearly all of them were warriors for the Light. They battled against Dark Lords, major and minor threats, across the world. I believe Harry's vanquishing of Voldemort was the 16th such defeat of a Dark Lord in the history of the Potter family. It's rumored, although it has never been proven, that Tristan, the Knight of the Round Table, was actually a Potter.

"That dedication to fighting evil came at a price. The Potter line never truly flourished. More than once it was down to a single member, including from 1981 until 2001. They did, however, marry prominently quite often, and not just important family names, but brilliant and powerful witches, regardless of blood status.

"The Potter family, likely due to it's lack of prejudice, always seemed to be flush with magic. They were respected members of the Wizengamot and have long held the title of Ancient and Noble House. Throughout the years, many important houses folded into the House of Potter, including the House of Fenwick and the House of Denison, and most notably, the Ancient and Noble House of Peverell. The Ancient and Noble House of Black would have also folded into the House of Potter had it not been for Wizengamot laws forty years ago.

"You see, right after the fall of the Dark Lord, the traditional houses on the Wizengamot, particularly those who aligned themselves with the Dark Lord, knew that their power was going to be disappearing quickly. Twice, in back to back generations, they had attempted to forcibly install government based on prejudice and fear and twice they had been defeated by the House of Potter. Unfortunately, because the Wizengamot seats are hereditary, they still were in a strong position to negotiate. They made a deal with those aligned with the light. They would allow the light to pick their own Minister for Magic, they wouldn't interfere with a complete overhaul of the Ministry of Magic to meet the expectations of the new Minister, and they wouldn't argue against any Department Head choices. In return, they wanted to reopen all Wizengamot seats that had been lost to history based on the closest relative to that line. The light agreed.

"What wasn't discussed was how to fill those seats, although the traditionally dark families had detailed how they planned to do it in the legislation without passing that information on. Witches who were the last of a family could spread the titles among their children. Wizards however, would be forced to take a wife per title up to seven wives, building a mini-harem as it were. As I previously mentioned, the House of Potter had swallowed the Houses of Denison, Fenwick, and Peverell. The House of Peverell had also previously swallowed the House of Ardoin, one of several prominent French families to immigrate over in the 1300s who were awarded Wizengamot seats. This history was fairly well known and Harry was one of two young wizards targeted in particular, the other being Neville Longbottom, who they were trying to force into polygamy with the goal of scaring off the next generation of muggleborns with the 'barbaric ways of the wizarding world.'

"What wasn't known was that Harry was also next in line to be Lord Black. He amazingly had the best blood claim to the title, despite being fairly distantly related from the main line, through his great-grandmother Dorea Black because the late Head of House Black Arcturus Black had made it so that any marked Death Eater couldn't become Lord Black because that meant he had promised to put somebody or some group ahead of the House of Black and that meant they couldn't be an effective leader of the House in his opinion. Every candidate with a better claim than Harry had either had their line blasted off the family tree and made ineligible or had taken the Dark Mark.

"The House of Black had previously taken on the House of Wickliffe and the House of Scrugham meaning Harry already had eight titles. But Harry also took on the Head of House McKinnon through the Black family. The McKinnon family was wiped out in the war down to a single pair of sisters, Marlene and Alice. Marlene was therefore Lady McKinnon, and when she signed a marriage contract with Sirius Black, he became Lord McKinnon. They didn't manage to have a ceremony before she was killed, but they did consummate the marriage which meant it was recognized both legally and magically. Alice McKinnon married Frank Longbottom and had one son, the previously mentioned Neville. Alice and Frank are still alive, but they are in the permanent care ward at St. Mungo's because of war injuries, it's not my place to be any more specific than that.

"Alice McKinnon was, well technically is, Harry's godmother. The last Lord McKinnon was his godfather and had named his as his heir, the last female member of House McKinnon is his godmother, and if you went back seven generations you found that Harry's great-great-great-great-great-grandmother was a McKinnon, so Harry had the second best claim to the House after Neville. Neville was already going to have to pass on the Longbottom name and at least one more house through his fiance. After learning that it wouldn't cost Harry another wife, Neville agreed to not claim the House and Harry became the Head of a ninth House.

"Now that you're caught up on all of that, let me tell you how my family enters the story."


	2. The House of Black, etc

Chapter 2: The Ancient and Noble House of Black, etc.

"My father wasn't quite as young as Harry, but still young nonetheless, when he became Lord Byron Greengrass. Growing up, he had two younger brothers, Nathaniel and Duncan. Nathaniel always was a colossal screw up. He had a massive inferiority complex and was constantly jealous of his older brother. He made terrible choices and was clearly on the way to being a Death Eater. My grandfather, Octavian, saw it coming and made a difficult choice. He decided that any member of the Greengrass family who took the Dark Mark would be immediately expelled from the family. It was actually the basis for Arcturus Black's idea.

"Grandfather knew it would likely cost him his life, that kind of defiance against the Dark Lord wouldn't be allowed, and told my father to prepare to take on the family Lordship. Four days later Ocativan and Duncan Greengrass were both dead. There was an uneasy peace between my father and his brother for the next seventeen years. Father never passed any family decrees and never revoked any either, and the two of them just ignored each other and Nathaniel remained an unmarked supporter of the Dark Lord and unsuitable for marriage in the eyes of every female on the planet. When Voldemort was vanquished for good, however, Nathaniel got desperate and reckless. He and a few friends attacked my family's home. Father got my mother, younger sister, and I out of the home but not himself. Nathaniel poisoned him and sent him to Gringott's Bank to request a substantial amount of money. If he returned with it, he was promised the antidote. My father was no fool and he knew there would be no antidote, so he activated an old contract to protect his family.

"About four hundred and fifty years ago there was a beautiful Greengrass daughter named Aurora. She was sought after by many, including the younger two of a trio of brothers of the House of Potter, Marcus and Benedict. In the end, she chose the younger brother Marcus, her best friend. Benedict, being the older brother, felt like he was entitled to her and, in a fit of jealous rage, killed Aurora. The heartbroken Marcus killed his brother, then himself. The problem was, this left a dead Greengrass daughter and no one for them to demand satisfaction from. Marcus and Benedict's older brother, Dallin, negotiated a contract with the House of Greengrass as compensation. It said that, at any time, the House of Greengrass could demand a son of the House of Potter to wed a chosen Greengrass daughter provided there is an age difference of no more than seven years, and the Potter family would forfeit the dowry. My family always saw it as something of a safety net to protect us. And that's how my father used it.

"As long as we signed the contract before my father died he would be able to name me as his heir and pass on the title of Lord Greengrass to Harry. Harry was legally seen as nine different people at that point, one for each family he was the head of, and so I agreed to marry Harry Potter, Lord Black and that day I became Lady Daphne Felicity Potter Greengrass Black. It surprised a lot of people that I didn't become Lady Potter, but truthfully I loved the mystique that surrounded the House of Black and was looking forward to rebuilding and leading it. I also wanted Harry to be able to choose his own Lady Potter whenever he found someone who deserved the title.

"He essentially married me to save me, a theme you'll see repeated quite often. That also meant he became Head of House Greengrass and House Cosgrove, which was another resurrected house that previously fell under the Greengrass name.

"After a private conversation with my father, Harry left my mother, sister, and I alone to spend time with my father during his last few hours. He returned two hours later with a small trunk and a bleeding arm. After asking my mother, sister, and I to give them a moment, he opened the trunk and showed my father its contents. I asked several weeks later what was in the trunk and I learned it was the heads of my uncle Nathaniel, his best friend Bruno Rosier, and the maker of the poison Lewis Slughorn all of whom he found lounging around in the living room at Greengrass Manor. You may think it harsh or unfair and even in the wizarding world it would have typically been of questionable legality. However Rosier had taken the mark which meant Harry, with his newly awarded International Hit Wizard license, was legally allowed to use whatever force necessary against him. As long as he attacked Rosier first and the other two threw curses at Harry to aid Rosier, he was allowed to kill them all. And more importantly, my father died with peace of mind because of Harry. I can never thank him enough for that. Do not judge him as you would a murderer, judge him as you would a soldier.

"Harry and I immediately went to work on straightening out the House of Black. Andromeda Tonks and her grandson, Harry's godson, Teddy Lupin were welcomed back into the family. Alphard Black was welcomed back into the family and he took a job teaching upper level Astronomy at Hogwarts. Cedrella Weasley née Black and her children and grandchildren were welcomed back into the family. Narcissa Malfoy requested that she be allowed to divorce her husband, who would be spending the rest of his life in prison, and it was granted so she was welcomed back into the House of Black as well. Her son was allowed to keep the name Malfoy, but he had to name his mother as his regent in the Wizengamot for at least seven years. Draco is the only marked Death Eater to not be captured or killed to the best of our knowledge because he's the only one who didn't 'earn' his mark by killing an innocent. He would eventually marry my younger sister Astoria. The Malfoy fortune disappeared between the splurging of Voldemort and the fines from the Ministry, so Harry and I provided the start up money for Draco's and Astoria's businesses, Mortar & Pestle Apothecary, which has two locations now, and What's Your Stori?, a gem and jewelry shop. The Greengrass family has operated a mine for generations so we have all the contacts needed to bring in affordable gems and minerals.

"I took the Black seat in the Wizengamot, Andromeda took the Wickliffe seat, and Alphard took the Scrugham seat. My mother, Darlene, took the Greengrass seat and my cousin, Gemma Farley, sat in the Cosgrove seat. Narcissa and I have managed the collective estates and political affairs for decades now, that was essentially my job.

"I'm the mother of seven children, five of which are serving or will serve as a Head of House. Sirius Regulus Black is an Auror with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Byron Octavian Greengrass prefers to be called Bo and does classified work for the Ministry. Duncan Colin Cosgrove is a solicitor and partner at Collinsworth, Creevey, Cosgrove, and Boot. The twins Atria Darlene and Talitha Dorea Black own a store in Diagon Alley where they sell robes and accessories. Remus Charlus Wickliffe is a wand crafter with a shop in Diagon Alley as well. My youngest, Frederick Arcturus Scrugham, is a parselmouth. He and his half-brother co-own a business that provides potions supplies and wand cores from magical animals called The Serpent & The Horse. He handles the serpent side of the operation working with the ashwinders, boomslangs, and runespoors, among others. And of course, you can't go through the House of Black without mentioning Teddy Lupin. We considered naming Teddy the Black heir from the start, but Andromeda didn't think it was a good idea. Instead we let him choose his own path, and as any self-respecting son of a Marauder would do, he started working for a joke shop. Teddy is now a partner at Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes where he manage the storefront and contributes new product ideas.

"And now let me tell you about my best friend…"


	3. The House of Davis

Chapter 3: The House of Davis

"Tracey Davis was my best friend from the second week of my first year at Hogwarts on. We were good for each other. I had the pureblood pedigree and sharp tongue, and she could snap off hexes with speed and accuracy that put the rest of the house in our year to shame. People learned quickly to leave us alone.

"Both of Tracey's parents were half-bloods from lines that didn't turn any heads. Both were innocent bystanders killed by stray spells in an attack on Diagon Alley before our seventh year started. She was fairly independent anyway, but I know the loss hit her hard. She was one of the hundreds of people to get blood tested after the Wizengamot announced the resurrection of seats and she got some horrifying news. Tracey was the heiress to the House of Wenlock.

"The Wenlocks were a respected wizarding family for some time, but a little less than two hundred years ago Cyrus Wenlock destroyed their reputation for good. By the time Cyrus graduated from Hogwarts there were six people ahead of him to be head of House Wenlock. A few years later and they had all miraculously died. Cyrus had achieved his goal and so he set about to have his trophy wife rebuild the house. They had six children, four sons and two daughters. By the time they were all of age, Cyrus was lusting for power again and he decided to take it by force. His wife and eldest daughter disagreed and conveniently disappeared.

"For ten months Cyrus Wenlock and his Knights attacked Southeastern England. After gaining nominal control, he set his eyes on the West Country. By then, people had started paying attention. Cyrus Wenlock was known throughout Britain as a rising Dark Lord and the Knights of Walpurgis were feared by most. Most, but not all. The Potters feared nothing and nobody, and so it was Patton Potter who led the forces of the light when the sides met at Godric's Hollow. There were skirmishes throughout the town but the main battle was a five on five showdown that was clearly to the death. Cyrus and his sons Uriah, Gamaliel, Mordecai, and Cyprian squared off against Patton Potter, Shadrach Longbottom, Holland Prewett, Clement Bones, and Crispin Shafer. Shafer was the last of his line and clearly not on the same level as the others, but nobody could deny his right to vengeance after the Wenlocks killed his wife and unborn child.

"When the dust settled Shafer, Longbottom, and all five Wenlocks lay dead. Bones lost his left arm, and, though he didn't lose it, Prewett was never able to use his right leg again. Potter's back was covered in terrible burns that he never fully recovered from. The Shafer line was gone, though Crispin got his revenge, and eventually the Abbotts had to bring it back through their second daughter. The Wenlock line was gone as well, at least that's what everybody thought.

"Before the battle, Roslin Wenlock, the youngest of the siblings, was able to escape to Birmingham where she joined the muggle world. She married a muggle and had one daughter named Winona Talbert. Winona married a muggle and had one daughter named Stephanie Chambers. Stephanie married a muggleborn and had one daughter named Cecilia Tennyson. Cecilia married a half-blood and had one daughter named Tracey Davis.

"We found out in August and hatched a plan. Harry and I were going to hold a marriage ceremony in December shortly before Christmas. The law said that Houses not claimed by December 31st were forfeit, so Harry and I had our ceremony on the 23rd, and on the 30th Tracey went to Gringott's and claimed her ring. She then immediately went to the Ministry and had the House name changed from Wenlock to Davis, something only allowed for resurrected Houses, and filed to be under the protection of House Black.

"Normally that's not a big deal, but if an unmarried wizard puts a single young woman under house protection, it's common that he marries her. We didn't want to give people the idea that they could just show up and get to marry him by pleading for protection, although it did happen, and since Tracey was the last of her line, we were able to execute a rarely used law and name her a consort to House Black. Tracey kept her last name and didn't take on any of Harry's titles, but she was the equivalent to his wife all the same, Tracey Grace Davis, Consort to Lord Black.

"We immediately asked Augusta Longbottom to proxy the seat for a few reasons. It was primarily because Tracey had a budding career as an Auror and she didn't want any distractions. It also sent a clear message that the House of Davis was firmly accepted on our side and we wouldn't be tolerating any slandering of her name."

"Tracey was an Auror for about ten years, she left after learning that she was pregnant with her second child. Now she does security consulting, private defense tutoring, and has an active International Hit Witch license. Like Harry, she keeps the license active even though it's hardly used because it will allow her to use extreme force to protect the family if necessary.

"Her daughter, Ava Delilah, is a Potions professor at Hogwarts teaching the first through third years. It's crazy to think how much of a population boom we had after the war ended, now all the core classes need a second teacher just because of the sheer numbers. Her son, Emory Maxwell, owns The Poison Pen, a bookstore that Hogwarts students love to visit on Hogsmeade weekends."


	4. The House of Bones, etc

Chapter 4: The Ancient and Noble House of Bones, etc.

"Susan Bones was the last living person with Bones blood in her veins. Her mother was still alive, a half-blood, daughter of a minor pureblood house and a muggleborn. The Bones were steeped in history as well, known as fighters for the light and well regarded for their spell creation. Like House Potter, the Ancient and Noble House of Bones had families that had merged into it, specifically the House of Flanders and the House of Caldwell.

"While Tracey and I had never really interacted with Harry at Hogwarts, Susan had quietly established herself as a member of his circle, replacing the Weasley siblings after a ridiculous ordeal that we'll get into later on. She is typically loyal and friendly, but fierce in her protection of loved ones, probably because so many of them have been taken from her.

"During the First War, the Bones, like the Potters, the Longbottoms, and the Prewetts, suffered greatly fighting against the forces of Voldemort. Her family was down to just a single quartet of siblings, and their three children. The oldest was her Aunt Amelia, then the Head of House her Uncle Edgar, her father Richard, and the youngest brother Robert. Voldemort attacked them head on. Edgar, his wife, and both his kids were slaughtered. Richard and Robert, who never married, were both killed as well. This left only Amelia, who was a closet lesbian and eventually head of the DMLE, both of which made it unlikely for her to settle down and have children, Susan's mother Diana, and Susan herself as the last three to have the name Bones. Amelia was killed early in the second war and only Diana and Susan remained.

"The activation of many old families also activated a lot of their old contracts. For example the House of Caldwell had an active contract with the House of Belby, only it didn't matter for several centuries because there was no House of Caldwell. With most of these contracts, such as that one, both parties agreed to settle it without marriage, usually with a galleon going one way or the other to 'buy out' the contract. The House of Flanders, however, had a contract with the Ancient and Noble House of McLaggen.

"Lord Lochlan McLaggen and his son Cormac are two of the most awful people to be in the presence of, and you'll know they're there because they won't shut up about themselves. More importantly, Lochlan thought that Susan would have to marry Cormac because of the contract and sat out to, in basic terms, extort her. She should have clearly been able to wed without a dowry because she brought three titles with her, which is far more valuable than any amount of gold in our world. Instead, the McLaggens demanded a dowry more than 20x the average price, the lordship to all three of her titles, and 51% ownership of the Bones Family Crematorium.

"Susan had only one hope really, that whoever became the Head of resurrected family who had a contract with House Bones would be willing to save her. And Harry Potter, Head of House Denison, did just that.

"Susan announced the betrothal at the January 1999 Wizengamot session, the McLaggens claimed line theft and things got really, really fun. Susan detailed all the extortion attempts and even read a letter from Annabelle Flanders, the last of her family line, that was found in the family vault. It said that Annabelle killed herself because she would rather suffer through the shame of ending her family name forever than marry a McLaggen.

"The McLaggens were thoroughly embarrassed. Harry smacked them around in the papers for a few more weeks just to rub it in and they agreed to buyout the contract from their end. That is now the thing that Cormac McLaggen is second most well known for. As the Owner/General Manager/Coach/Captain/Keeper of the Montrose Magpies, he allowed more goals in a single season than any player in the history of organized quidditch. Isn't karma lovely?

"So in March 1999, Susan would become Lady Susan Marie Potter Denison Bones. Susan quickly put her mother in the Flanders seat and her best friend Hannah Longbottom née Abbott in the Caldwell seat. Like me, she had to push out a lot of sons to fill all the family names, but she managed to find the time to rise up through the Department of International Magical Cooperation. Susan still sits in one of the British seats on the International Confederation of Wizards and is considered Britain's most influential foreign diplomat.

"Her oldest child is a daughter named Dora Amelia Bones, she runs the family crematorium now. Edgar Sampson Bones II is currently the Deputy Head of the Department of Magical Transportation and if you give him twenty years, he'll be the Minister for Magic. Her second son, Richard Francis Caldwell, runs 394 Publishing. It's named after 394 Axminster Square, the company's address, and has focused on publishing biographies and other history texts to help our country make up for ground lost due to the years of neglect the subject has suffered from while Cuthbert Binns was teaching at Hogwarts. Rose Diana Bones is the operations manager at Winter Gardens, a company that supplies plants for potion making that our family co-owns with the Longbottoms. The third son, Robert Taylor Flanders, completed a six year contract with Gringott's doing curse breaking and has since opened his own business, Flanders Warding & Curse Breaking. And the final son is Arthur Neville Denison. He teamed up with my son, his half-brother and best friend, and owns the other half of The Serpent & The Horse, he manages the horse side of the business, unicorns, thestrals, abraxans, hippogriffs, and the like.

"Now we move on to the ones where Harry actually had a choice."


	5. The House of Potter

Chapter 5: The Ancient and Noble House of Potter

"Lady Potter was, at the time, clearly the most sought after position in the wizarding world. People tried everything to secure the title of Lady Potter, contracts written to trick Harry, love potions, and all kinds of seduction. It was absurd. Absolutely absurd. And it started with Ginny Weasley."

"Harry and Ginny had a relationship of sorts in his sixth year, but it ended before it got started. Harry hadn't seen her in almost a year, then he goes to bed and sleeps for about 24 hours after defeating Voldemort and he wakes up the next morning and find Ginny Weasley giving him a blowjob and she didn't stop there. Harry didn't really know how to react. He was a seventeen year old boy so he wasn't unhappy with the situation, but at the same time he was uncomfortable with how it happened so abruptly and too socially awkward to do anything about it.

"It took exactly two days to figure out why Jimmy Peakes, a fellow Gryffindor quidditch player, was unhappy with Harry. It wasn't exactly a secret that Harry woke up with Jimmy's girlfriend in his bed. That was a big red flag that turned Harry off of Ginny. If she wasn't faithful to Jimmy, he didn't trust her to be faithful to him. And when we later learned that she had been with Wayne Hopkins and her ex-boyfriend Michael Corner on the side as well, Harry all but ran from her.

"Ginny wasn't having it. She rallied her family, who Harry had always been close to, to put pressure on Harry to make her Lady Potter. She twice attempted to dose him with love potions. She also wrote a letter to the Flamel family on Harry's behalf asking to purchase their property in Axminster, just down the road from her family home, The Burrow, so they could build a house close to her family home.

"To save her family's reputation, Harry bought the property anyway and turned it into a business center. The first business he opened was a daycare and he hired Molly Weasley to work there, though Andromeda Tonks was in charge, because of how much she loved children. It was the birth of Axminster Square, which turned into a massive money maker for our family.

"Eventually Harry had to invoke the life debt that Ginny Weasley owed him to make her leave him alone. This didn't sit well with the other younger, immature Weasley either. Ginny Weasley, to this day, believes that she is entitled to the position of Lady Potter and has refused to date anybody else, though if the rumors are true she hasn't refused to sleep with anybody who comes calling. Ron Weasley, and by extension his wife Hermione, was furious that his perfect family image was ruined by a friend who had the audacity to reject his sister. Their friendship never recovered. Hermione and Harry managed a tense but not unfriendly relationship for several years before finally they both just gave up. Molly was sad, but she understood. The four older brothers and Arthur all realized that Ginny was seriously crazy and completely at fault and held no ill will towards Harry.

"The future Lady Potter had actually known Harry since his first year at Hogwarts. Katie Bell had been one of the Gryffindor Flying Foxes, three talented and attractive chasers on the quidditch team. She had, like Susan, followed Harry's lead at Hogwarts during his last few years. Even though she had already graduated, she answered the call the night of the final battle, the scar on her right cheek proves it.

"Katie's father is a muggleborn named Bernard Bell. When Bernard was at Hogwarts he had two close friends, Daniel Cogg, and Graeme McMaster, of the House of McMaster. Bernard and Daniel would go on to open Cogg & Bell Clockmakers in Horizont Alley with the financial backing of Graeme and the House of McMaster.

Graeme also has an older sister named Isla. Isla was born a squib. It was not uncommon at that point in time for squibs to be cast out of their family and that's what the head of House McMaster, Graeme and Isla's uncle Brodric, did. Her father Ciaran, however, refused to kick her out of his home. Isla would go on to marry Bernard and they had a single child, Katherine.

"Katie getting a Hogwarts letter went a long way towards having Brodric reinstate her into the family. Everybody seems to think he was waiting to see who she would marry. He died, allegedly in a potions accident, during Voldemort's reign. Ciaran then became the Head of House and reinstated the line, magical ability be damned.

"The Potters have previously operated a dockyard in Cornwall that imported a whole lot of magical goods and supplies for Southwestern England. It was destroyed during the first blood war and never rebuilt. When Harry learned he had the property he set about to make it functional again and so hee sought out the McMasters who ran the Highlands Shipyard in Eastern Scotland.

"Harry liked and trusted Katie already, but they gave a relationship a shot because of how close their families became and it worked out beautifully for them. I have grace, but it's accompanied by an aura of arrogance, while Susan is exactly the opposite, approachable and more blue collar, if you will. Katie is the perfect mixture of both, blonde hair, blue eyes, loads of charm, and a constant, welcoming smile.

"Lady Katherine Annette Potter née Bell ended up getting a mastery in broomology as has been consulting with the Comet Trading Company on their brooms for decades. She retired a few years ago as the Chief of Design for the company. Both of her kids were named after Harry's parents. James Goddard Potter II is the reigning British and Irish Duelling Champion and his little sister Lily Elizabeth is the editor of The Ink & The Quill, which recently overtook the Daily Prophet as the largest daily newspaper in magical Britain and Ireland."


	6. The House of Peverell

Chapter 6: The Ancient and Noble House of Peverell

"When the House of Peverell was resurrected, it was a spectacle. First of all, Peverell was the only Ancient and Noble line to ever become extinct. Second, the family was filled with absolutely legendary enchanters. It was a huge deal. All the single women from fourteen to forty already wanted to be Lady Potter and Harry managed to throw a particularly tasty second place option on the table as well.

"It shocked nobody who knew Harry well that he asked Luna Lovegood to sit in the Peverell seat. Which is to say, it shocked all but about ten people in all of Britain. Now, Luna didn't go on to marry Harry, though that fact saddens me to this day. Don't get me wrong, I love all of my sister wives, but it would fill me with joy just to follow Luna around during high brow social functions and watch people react to the things she says. I don't know whether she does it on purpose or not, but she manages to fluster the most serious, no-nonsense people in ways that make me giggle like a schoolgirl. She and her husband Rolf make an excellent pair, however, and they've managed to turn the once ridiculed Quibbler into a reliable academic journal on magical beasts.

"People who were paying attention knew who the real front runner for the seat was. At the Potter Family Yule Ball in December 1999, Harry's engagement to Katie had already been announced along with a February 1st wedding date. But who was it on Harry's arm that evening? The lovely, dare I say enchanting, Padma Patil.

"The Patils are one of the few families with a seat in Britain and another wizarding legislative body. The Flamels hold seats in Britain, France, and the Benelux, the Zabini family in Britain and Italy, the Shafiqs in Britain and Egypt, and the Patils in Britain and India. I wouldn't be surprised, however, to see the Vane family add a British seat to their Spanish seat or the Delacour family to add one in Britain in the not so distant future to accompany their French seat.

"The Head of the family is whoever holds the Indian seat, but the Patils don't follow strict succession lines like most families. They often take cousins and nephews to hold the English seat and manage the family business on the British isles. For the longest time, the business was based on importing magic carpets, but they would expand to herbs, spices, and enchanted objects, which became especially important after magic carpets became illegal in Britain.

"Now my family ran its own importing business, items from Turkey, Greece, and Italy in particular, in addition to our mining operation. But with the loss of the entirety of the male population of the Greengrass family, not to mention all the chaos around my husband, it just became too much to try to manage it all. We approached the Patil's about merging the businesses, keeping the Greengrass family as a silent partner, and turning over operations to the Patil family. They accepted and Patil Family Herbs, Spices, and Magical Goods merged with the Greengrass Importing Company to become Patil Imports.

"It is customary in India for a business deal of this magnitude to be sealed with a betrothal. I don't think the Patils would have pushed it either way, but Harry and Padma were definitely clicking. She's positively brilliant. She understands people, Harry in particular, in a way that nobody else does.

"Padma was also a member of Harry's extended group at Hogwarts. They called themselves Dumbledore's Army at the time, but the name was changed after the old man's manipulations were uncovered and processed. Now they go by The Weathermen, it's a play on Harry's lightning bolt shaped scar. Regardless, Padma was a member of the resistance at Hogwarts and fought in the final battle.

"Although historically her family entered the young women into betrothals with Indian families after they completed their magical education, Padma's father convinced Taluqdar Patil, the actual head of the family, to hold off in case Harry Potter chose one of his daughters as a wife. It became clear fairly soon that Parvati wasn't going to marry Harry. She had her eyes set on a neighbor in India who she would go on to marry and who agreed to move to England. He would never be the English Head of House, but it was agreed that Naresh and his line would continue to hold valuable positions on the English side of the family business.

"Naresh also let Parvati have a job, something Harry convinced him to do, to keep her happy. She opened Vati's Styles and Smiles, a boutique in Hogsmeade. It makes quite a bit of money and the family eventually came around after discovering that it wasn't really a job for Parvati, it was a passion.

"Padma joined the Ministry right out of school. It was rumored that she joined the Unspeakables, and honestly I don't know if that's the case or not, but she ended up in the newly created Department of Muggle Affairs. Any position in the Ministry that interacted regularly with muggles was moved into this department.

"I told you earlier that Padma just understands people, and I think that is largely what drove her down the path towards becoming an obliviator. She respects and understands the mind. Any unbiased observer would call her the foremost expert of mind magic in Britain, maybe Europe. She was head of the Obliviators for a dozen years, and still does some training for them and some consulting for St. Mungo's on brain related injuries, but she's mostly living a quiet life now.

"Lady Padma Divya Potter Peverell née Patil has two children of her own. Kiran Ignotus is working for Patil Imports. He's an impressive negotiator and will likely end up in charge of the European side of their business. He's managed to expand it to include Ukraine where they've basically cornered the market on Ukrainian Ironbelly hides and heartstrings. Her daughter Jasmine Basanti is a freelance investigative journalist and author. She does write some smaller stories for The Ink & The Quill but is most famous for writing the definitive biography on Albus Dumbledore, much to Rita Skeeter's chagrin, and Lord Voldemort himself. She's currently working on a book called _Divided We Fall: The Story of the House of Black During the Blood Wars._ You might even see it on bookshelves in time for Christmas."


	7. The House of Parkinson

Chapter 7: The Ancient and Noble House of Parkinson

"If you had told me at any time during my seven years at Hogwarts that Harry Potter would marry Pansy Parkinson, I would have laughed in your face. Out loud. In a really, really obnoxious way. She insulted Neville Longbottom in the very first flying class of the year and things went straight downhill from there.

"The Parkinson family was a line known for basically being there while other people did infamous things. They were the sidekick to the superhero, or supervillain depending on your point of view. Pansy's uncle, Pendleton Parkinson, was a right bastard. He was a selfish, ruthless, egotistical bastard. Worse for Pansy, her father was a spineless coward.

"Before she started school Pansy's father Perseus, as ordered by her uncle, told her to get as close as possible to Draco Malfoy in an attempt to bring the families together. Pendleton had two sons, Palmer and Poltock, so Pansy was the only one available to him to seek a union with the Malfoy family, who had been slowly gaining power and had been a more recent elevation to the status of Ancient and Noble House. Pansy's mother was a Blishwick, not a noble house but one that held a Wizengamot proper seat anyway, and she knew it was an idea destined to fail, but gave what assistance she could.

"Draco never loved Pansy, but he protected her throughout school. The Malfoys had power, so if Draco said leave her alone, she was left alone, even by the older years. When Voldemort returned, things changed. Most families left at least one male member unmarked to protect against any legislation that might be affected by the mark. The Parkinsons, in their arrogance, decided to mark all the males of their line, and with Pendleton's wife dying after the birth of their second son, Pansy and her mother were the only unmarked members of the House of Parkinson.

"During our sixth year, Draco was given a task by Lord Voldemort as punishment for Lucius's mistakes. Draco was a spoiled, arrogant, sixteen year old child and immediately it went to his head. He began to blow off Pansy, and shortly after Christmas it was pretty clear that she wasn't protected anymore. Since she was failing to accomplish the task her father and uncle asked of her, she couldn't exactly write home to complain about the situation that she found herself in. And what a horrible situation it was.

"I distinctly remember the day that Pansy stumbled loudly down the hall where the sixth year girls had rooms bawling her eyes out. She was bruised and bloody, but refused to be taken to the hospital wing. She started keeping to herself, and the bruises never seemed to go away. I never put together why until later.

"If you were to tell me that Pansy lost her virginity to Greg Goyle in February of 1997, I would tell you that you're a liar because I believe you lose your virginity the first time you choose to have sex. And it wasn't just Goyle who abused her for the next several years. Vincent Crabbe, Teddy Nott, Peregrine Derrick, Clinton Flint, Owen Jugson. The worst of the worst that Slytherin House had to offer, and I'll readily admit that we were easily the worst of the houses at Hogwarts.

"The Battle of Hogwarts left Crabbe, Flint, and Jugson dead, and Derrick, Nott, and Goyle in hiding. Only Goyle and his father, his mother had been dead for a number of years, went into hiding with the Parkinsons. And her uncle decided that Pansy and Greg made just the perfect couple. She was to marry her rapist.

"Pansy had finally reached the end of her line. She needed to escape and managed to apparate through wards that were supposed to trap her at Parkinson's Crossing, a medium sized home that was operating as their hideout. She broke through the wards, which had to have taken an absurd amount of willpower because she definitely didn't have the raw magical power for it, and found Draco at his shop in Diagon Alley. Draco contacted Harry. And Harry prepared for war.

"Most people question Harry all the time about why he keeps his Hit Wizard license active. He says that it's to protect his family with as much force as he deems necessary. And I've never seen him as angry as he was when Pansy finished telling her story. He slowly and cautiously put his arms around her and wrapped her in a hug and whispered a single question in her ear. 'Pansy,' he said, 'do you want to be there to watch me take revenge for you, or do you just want to know it's done?'

"Pansy made him a portkey to the property, but didn't tag along. Harry went alone, but he showed the pensieve memory to the Wizengamot when they questioned him about it. He walked right up to the front door and knocked on it. Pansy's mother opened the door and he put her in a body bind and walked right in.

"He yelled out, 'Pendleton Parkinson, Perseus Parkinson, Palmer Parkinson, Poltock Parkinson, Marvin Goyle, and Gregory Goyle, you are under arrest for crimes committed against magical Britain while serving the Dark Lord Voldemort. You have exactly three seconds to surrender or I will take great pleasure in inflicting pain upon you in ways that would make you scoff at the idea of being held under Voldemort's cruciatus curse.

"Two spells flew at him, Harry dodged and one of them hit Pansy's mom instead. They were both killing curses and that took things to a whole new level. Harry blasted through that house like I have never seen in my life. There was such grace and such destruction at the same time. He was like an emerald green cloaked harbinger of death who moved through that house with finesse that shouldn't have been possible in that situation throwing blasting curses, cutting curses, and bone breakers with speed and accuracy that would make your jaw drop.

"When it was all said and done, Harry left without a scratch and all six men who attacked him lay dead. Most of them in more than one piece. Harry called the DMLE, retired to his estate and arranged for Pansy to be brought to him. He told her the story and she collapsed in tears of joy and relief. Being the last of her line, Pansy had a few options, but being 'un-pure' meant most families wouldn't give her the time of day.

"Astoria gave Draco permission to take her on as a consort. Both I, as the first wife, and Katie, as Lady Potter, gave Harry permission as well. They let her choose, and she picked Harry.

"When Kingsley Shacklebolt first came into office, he pledged to move our society forward while retaining our culture, history, and tradition. One of the things he did was rebrand the Department of Magical Sports and Games as the Department of Magical Sports, Games, and Culture. The first sub-department created was the British Magical Historical Society. The second was The Wheel of the Year Committee.

"Pansy volunteered to serve on and was instrumental in setting up The Wheel of the Year Committee and ensuring it operated successfully. The Committee is responsible for handling the funding and organization of the magical community's public celebrations of Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lughnasadh, Mabon, and Samhain. Pansy has been the chair of the committee for the past thirty years, a semi-full time job. She also spends quite a bit of time at the Axminster Daycare Center after realizing that, according to her, children were able to bring her happiness for the first time in her life.

Lady Pansy Ophelia Parkinson, Consort to Lord Potter decided to keep one family tradition, no matter how much she hated her family. As you may have noticed, her family all had a first name beginning with the letter P. She would go on to have three children. Pearl Savannah has taken over running the Mortar & Pestle Apothecary location in Diagon Alley from Draco so he could dedicate himself to other business ventures and his seat on the Wizengamot. Patience Magnolia did a six year stint in finance at Gringott's bank. She found one area where they always seemed to be behind the curve, real estate. Patience started her own real estate business, intending to be an agent working with Gringott's to find properties for clients. It's expanded well beyond that and is now known as Image Real Estate, Brokerage, and Property Management. Pansy's son, Prescott Godfrey, opened Pewter & Brass Cauldron Shop right beside his sister's apothecary."


	8. The House of MacDougal, etc

Chapter 8: The Ancient and Noble House of MacDougal, etc.

"Originally there were twenty-four Ancient and Noble Houses, but throughout history as population grew, or as favors were owed, new Houses were elevated. Tradition held that there was always an even number of Houses. The count after the Blood Wars ended up was thirty-eight, but with the resurgence of the Ancient and Noble House of Peverell, at least one other House needed to be promoted. But naturally, as is the case in politics, people couldn't agree which Houses.

"Eventually a compromise of sorts was reached. Peverell would get its status back, and three more Houses would be elevated. The darker aligned and lighter aligned would each get one, with some say by the other side, and the last one would be a free for all. Those aligned with the dark nominated ten houses, the light aligned narrowed the number down to three, and the dark aligned chose to elevate the House of Walsh. The light nominated their ten, the dark narrowed it down to three, and the light chose to elevate the House of Diggory.

"For the final spot, the darker houses pushed hard for the House of Vaisey and the light rallied around the House of MacDougal. Harry wouldn't go as far as to openly endorse the MacDougal family, but he did happen to be seen in public quite often with Morag MacDougal on his arm. A meal at the Leaky Cauldron, a Wimbourne Wasps vs Pride of Portree quidditch match, some business at Gringott's, you know, things that made the headlines of the gossip rags.

"In spite of it all, we were still behind. There were forty-one sitting families, seventeen of which were light aligned. Narcissa was moving the Malfoys toward us and Pansy was doing the same with the Parkinsons which gave us nineteen. Professor Slughorn arranged a nice dinner with his nephew Lord Coleman Slughorn, where it was very pointedly brought up that we had kept it a secret that Coleman's brother was the brewer of the potion that killed my father and we were owed a favor. This left us still one vote down.

"Scotland is pretty underwhelmingly represented in the Wizengamot in general and the Ancient and Noble Houses in particular. In fact, it was just the Macmillans and the McLaggens, one of which was conveniently against us. The MacFusty, McMaster, Scrimgeour, and Wood families, who held Wizengamot seats, were loudly in support of the elevation of the MacDougals and they organized a mass protest of the McLaggen owned Montrose Magpies for the 2001-2002 season in the name of Scottish unity. Eventually the McLaggens caved and by a vote of 21-20, the Ancient and Nobles welcomed the House of MacDougal.

"Harry had already chosen four of his seven wives at a pace that most people would agree was exceptionally fast. There were two factors that were driving this. On Harry's side, most witches are married by the time they turn twenty-five, so he needed to move fast or he was going to get stuck with some witches that he wasn't interested in and who, quite frankly, couldn't handle the pressure and responsibility that come with being his wife. On the side of the prospective females, each time he takes a wife the chances of her being chosen drop a little bit more. He had taken four of seven wives already, and it was known in some circles that he was already betrothed to a fifth, so they were starting to move on their backup options.

"English purebloods were furious that Harry was seen in public with a Scottish woman on his arm. If they wed it would be three wives in a row, obviously not counting Pansy, who didn't meet their standards. Padma is Indian and Katie is the daughter of a squib and a muggleborn. When people started putting pressure on Morag, she responded and in the end I think that's what won Harry over once and for all.

"Morag stands at exactly 5'0, but she is a tiny ball of fury. After a particularly harsh Daily Prophet article by Rita Skeeter, Morag made an appointment for the next day and when that time came she walked calmly into Rita's office at the Prophet and closed the door. She then proceeded to very loudly and very colorfully tear Rita Skeeter to pieces. It remains one of the greatest memories I've ever had the pleasure of viewing in a pensieve. Rita resigned the very next day and now lives somewhere in the Benelux leaving people alone.

"Morag does nothing halfway. She has a determination and problem solving ability like nobody I've ever met. English pureblood women expect to be wives and homemakers. Scottish women, pureblood or not, don't care what's expected of them. So while most of Britain thought she would take some position with a title but no responsibilities in the MacDougal Timber Company, they were very surprised when she earned a double mastery in magical beasts and healing magic. She turned those double masteries and several years of hard work into the Healer-in-Charge position of the Creature-Induced Injuries Wing on the first floor of St. Mungo's Hospital

"Morag's father Erskine was also the last male of his line. He had two sisters, both married, and two daughters. This meant that his oldest, Morag, was responsible for carrying on her family name. Originally, Erskine thought it might be difficult to find a man willing to marry her and let her keep her name, of course I don't think many people imagined the scenario that Harry had found himself in.

"Lady Morag Aileen Potter McKinnon MacDougal, of course we gave her the Scottish title, gave me quite the glare when I told her that I thought her newborn daughter, Fiona Maisie MacDougal, was taller than she was. Fiona did go into the family business. She uses her Herbology mastery to lead the effort to replant the areas that have been logged by the company.

"Somehow Morag's tiny little body managed to push out a pair of twins later on, we flipped a coin on which name each boy carry on. The oldest became Callum Ramsay McKinnon, he's been a godsend since he graduated Hogwarts. He has a knack for politics and has taken over most of our legislative affairs. His twin brother Domhnall Evander MacDougal, went in the most opposite direction possible. When the MacFusty's let us know that their Hebridian Black reservation in Scotland was getting overpopulated, our family purchased Inistrahull Island in northern Ireland. You guys know it as a tiny island with no population, we know it as the magically hidden and quite large home of the Inistrahull Island Dragon Reserve. Charlie Weasley was hired to run the place and Domhnall works as a dragon tamer there."


	9. The House of Jones, etc

Chapter 9: The Ancient and Noble House of Jones, etc.

"I mentioned earlier how the darker aligned houses gaves Minister Shacklebolt essentially free reign to restructure the government. One of those things was the rebranding of the Department of Magical Sports, Games, and Culture, a second priority was to elevate the Department of Magical Education to an upper level Ministerial department as opposed to the sub-level it had historically been. This focus on education was also going to lead to an increase in spending on education, especially at Hogwarts. This included the hiring of a second professor for each core subject, expanding the number of OWL and NEWT level electives, and making the Head of House position exclusive from teaching positions.

"Our culture and education objectives would have been easily affordable seven or eight years earlier when our economy had recovered from war. Instead of saving or investing the money, however, the Bagnold administration used it to pay off debts from the First Blood War, and Fudge and his cronies just paid themselves bonuses and threw themselves extravagant parties.

"So we had an idea to get a quick influx of cash to hold us off until the economy recovered and could sustain that level of expense. We were going to privatize Quidditch. Several dozen of the richest wizarding families in England, and a few international ones, gathered at Gringott's and auctioned off all the teams in a randomly selected order.

"Harry bought the Wimbourne Wasps, and immediately acquired the contract of Oliver Wood from the Puddlemere United. Several of the families mentioned so far bought other teams as well. Narcissa Black, with our permission and Black family money, bought the Tutshill Tornados on behalf of the Malfoy family. The McLaggens bought the Montrose Magpies and immediately ran them into the ground. The McMasters bought the Pride of Portree. Percy Weasley, who was serving a the Prewett Regent and who would be responsible for extending that line, bought the Chudley Cannons at a bargain price at the request of his brother. The most notable name in British and Irish Quidditch was the Holyhead Harpies, and they were bought by Lord Rhodri Jones.

"The Jones family had always been known for three things: quidditch, furniture, and Welsh pride. Gwenog Jones was the latest in a long line of superstars from the Jones family tree and intended to coach her old team after retiring, hence the request for her brother to buy them. The Ancient and Noble House of Jones also operated Jones Brothers Furniture, with a workshop in Blackwood and a storefront in Diagon Alley.

"The Jones family, like most of the wizarding families in Britain, suffered during the war. They were down to just five members at the end. Lord Rhodri Jones's wife was a muggleborn and was killed during the First Blood War, leaving him as a single father. He did have three younger sisters who helped filled that void in his daughter's life. Gwenog was the oldest sister, but the only wood that would ever be caught between her legs was a broomstick, if you catch my meaning. Obviously she was a household name and Quidditch superstar. Elenydd was the second sister. She married a muggleborn Welsh wizard herself and worked for the Wizarding Examinations Authority before going into hiding during the Second Blood War. The third sister was Hestia Jones who works for the Accidental Magical Reversal Squad. She was just seven years older than her niece and played the role of big sister.

"When it came to investment in education, Elenydd Maddox née Jones was one of the people leading the charge. Aside from the increase in funding, a restructuring of the board was proposed to allow a more equitable distribution of power. The fifteen seat board was now split up as follows, one Ministerial appointee, two Wizengamot appointees, three Department of Magical Education appointees, one faculty appointee, and eight elected seats. There would be elections held based on alumni of each house, guaranteeing a Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, and Slytherin member. There would also be elections to choose one English, one Welsh, one Irish, and one Scottish member.

"The Jones family embraced the positive changes to education in the wizarding world. Lord Rhodri's daughter Megan would be the first Head of Hufflepuff House after the change while she obtained masteries in History and Ancient Studies. Elenydd would be elected to the Welsh seat on the Hogwarts Board of Governors.

"Quidditch and education brought our family together with the Jones, but there was a third factor that helped. Hestia Jones had never met Harry's old Quidditch captain Oliver Wood until the Battle of Hogwarts. They ended up together on the field of battle, back to back, fighting against the world, and there amidst the chaos a connection was born.

"The Woods would be one of the families that resurrected a dead house in the same manner that Tracy did. The House of Bartlet became the House of Wood, and even though he wasn't Welsh, Rhodri was happy to see his little sister find love with Oliver.

"It was Hestia who convinced Oliver to go along with a plan to set up Harry with Megan and I admit that I couldn't see it working out. Harry was always reserved, guarded, and suspicious and Megan was very quiet herself. I could picture them on a date spending forty-five minutes eating dinner and neither saying a word except to order the food. It was a bit awkward for them at first, but Harry's dry wit and self-deprecating humor brought out the sweet, giggly side of Megan and off the went.

"Megan never gets worked up, she's the voice of reason, the one that keeps us all grounded. She and Harry also never argue, they might disagree, but it never escalates. Well it only escalates twice a year when the Wimbourne Wasps, led by coach and former captain Oliver Wood, take on the Holyhead Harpies, led by coach and former captain Gwenog Jones. Everyone with the last name Potter and everyone with the last name Jones engage in a full day, giant staring contest while wearing their team's jerseys. They even got in trouble for wearing them under their uniforms at Hogwarts! And imagine poor Hestia, trying to pick between her sister and her husband. I've heard she requests double shifts at work on game days.

"When Lady Megan Lynn Potter Fenwick Jones was announced to the world, it brought an end to the Harry Potter sweepstakes. She was only the sixth wife, but the name and circumstances around number seven were making their way around and nobody was going to argue with it. Megan would spend a few years as a member of the British Magical Historical Society, a few more on the Magical Masteries Panel, and finally went on to succeed her aunt as a member of the Hogwarts Board of Governors, which she currently chairs.

"She has four children, Alison Gwenog Jones works for the Department of Magical Education on the Committee for Magical Research Funding. Tegan Anna Jones is the captain of the Holyhead Harpies and a chaser for the Welsh National Team. Rhys Gruffudd Jones is currently an account manager for Jones Brothers Furniture, but he'll likely make Chief Financial Officer in the not so distant future. Benjamin Maldwyn Fenwick went into law and became a barrister. He consults some with Collinsworth, Creevey, Cosgrove, and Boot, but spends most of his time slowly taking over the management of the Potter family estates. Thank Merlin for him!"


	10. The House of Ardoin, etc

Chapter 10: The House of Ardoin, etc.

"Harry Potter racked up life debts at a rate unmatched in recorded history. He started at age eleven by jumping on the back of a troll and he hasn't shown any signs of slowing down. Some people use life debts in nefarious ways to force people into terrible circumstances. Harry acknowledges them only as a point of honor for the other party.

"During the Tri-Wizard Tournament, Harry managed to gain a life debt from Fleur Delacour, who he saved in the maze during the third task, and her younger sister Gabrielle who he rescued from the bottom of the Black Lake during the second task.

"Veela are known to react strongly to outside influences on their magic. It is in some ways surprising that Fleur didn't become slightly infatuated with Harry after the tournament, but instead she fell in love with and married Bill Weasley. However, in the summer of the year 2000, between Harry's marriages to Katie and Padma, Fleur requested that he join her father for a meeting to settle life debts.

"Harry didn't think anything of it at the time and met the Delacours at their summer home near Normandy. Harry took Susan with him and I still laugh every time I remember our first conversation upon his return to England. I simply asked, 'Well?', and he simply replied, 'I'm engaged. Again.'

"Fleur struggled through school because of how her allure affected those around her. She controlled it as much as possible, but fourteen year old boys are incredibly horny and even more weak-willed. Add in the fact that fourteen year old girls are incredibly petty and jealous and it's bound to be a bad time for the poor Veela who just wants people to leave her alone. Fleur cared very much for her sister and didn't want her to go through the same type of accusations of line theft and betrothal interference that she was met with consistently, so she brought a plan to her father to help her sister avoid the trouble.

"At the meeting between Fleur and her father Pierre and Harry and Susan, it was proposed that, as payment for the life debt owed for saving Gabrielle, Harry would take her as a wife, and, as payment for the life debt owed for saving Fleur, his second son with Gabrielle would continue the Delacour name. Harry was suitably gobsmacked, but Fleur pressed anyway. She knew what was being asked and explained why.

"Gabrielle was already tied to Harry. He was her hero, she talked about him all the time, and Fleur suspected that her magic had already chosen Harry as a mate and therefore if it wasn't Harry, she wasn't getting married at all. And while he couldn't save Gabrielle entirely from what she went through as a student, being able to laugh off accusations of betrothal tampering would help quite a bit since Gabrielle would be able to claim she was betrothed herself, and wasn't interested in downgrading to the accusing party.

"And so it was agreed. Naturally, the Delacours requested that Gabrielle take the French last name that Harry had inherited, Ardoin. Together the group crafted a standard line for Gabrielle to deliver to anybody who accused her of attempted line theft. It went something like this, 'I'm not guilty of line theft, attempted line theft, betrothal tampering, attempted betrothal tampering, or any other silly law that you wish to accuse me of breaking because of (insert name) being a weak-willed fool. I'm currently betrothed myself and have no desire to downgrade to said weak-willed fool. If you wish to press the issue, a duel of honor can be arranged if you are willing to wait until on or after January 1st, 2015, by which time my husband will be willing to stand in my stead. And before you ask, yes my father is a talented dueller and powerful wizard, but my betrothed is far more skilled and powerful and particularly eager make quick work of all those who insult me.'

"Seven such accusations were made against Gabrielle Delacour, two were dropped once Gabrielle spoke her line, two more after confirmation from Pierre that everything she said was truthful. Two others withdrew their complaint after the betrothal announcement was made public once Gabrielle finished her schooling at Beauxbatons and paid reparations to the House of Delacour, and the final fool refused to withdraw his complaint. Harry then requested a second duel of honor against the boy's father for besmirching Harry's name by publicly stating the he didn't believe Harry would fight on behalf of a Veela slut.

"Harry made exceptionally short work of the accuser. He used one spell to transfigure the boy into a donkey. He didn't make short work of the father though, he made an example of him and the world took notice. He tore the stupid bastard apart, one spell at a time and afterwards he told all the reporters gathered, 'Let the world know, if you insult one of my wives or one of my friends the way this arrogant waste of oxygen did, no amount of healing magic is going to make the pain you receive from my wand go away.'

"Usually women of Veela descent struggle to produce males. It's said to take a particularly strong wizard for such a thing to happen, but usually Veela don't make a fuss about it. As long as you have a daughter, you have done your duty to the Veela nation and can carry your head high with pride. Naturally, Harry had two sons before Gabrielle Nicole Potter Delacour Ardoin had the daughter that everyone was expecting.

"The other thing you have to understand about Veela is that they're born beautiful. The allure also exists, but they're just naturally stunning women. And let me tell you this, I'm almost sixty years old now and I think I've aged pretty well. In my prime, I was a legitimate ten out of ten, but I never held a candle to Gabrielle. She may very well have been the single most beautiful woman in all of Britain.

"She hated all the attention though, so Gabrielle never took a real job. She set out to make her mark on the world in another way. At the time, the magical world was stagnant. Britain had only made one major advancement in the previous thirty years, the Wolfsbane potion, a pair of Greek brothers had managed to kill a chimera which allowed further study of it, and some Algerians made powerful advancements in runic wards, but that was it. I mean worldwide, that was it.

"Gabrielle decided to get a mastery in arithmancy and then another in herbology and proceeded to mix the two of them in ways that nobody had ever thought of and it led to breakthrough after breakthrough in the potency and possible uses of magical plants. She has her own greenhouse at Winter Gardens where she tests theories and while she's still positively beautiful, it's now the third most famous thing about her after her herbology advancements and being married to Harry.

"Gabrielle's oldest son, Roland Alain Ardoin, is the manager of ADP Winery, which operates a vineyard in Saint-Tropez, France. The ADP stands for Ardoin, Delacour, Potter, and solidified the joining of the families and the investment of the Potter families in France. Her second son, Andre Pierre Delacour, inherited a Delacour family business, Cottages on the Rhine, which rents out vacation homes and cabins in Strasbourg, France. Sophie Noelle Ardoin owns The Pheasant's Feather, a shop that sells quills and other writing instruments and stationery in Diagon Alley.

"And finally, we get to Rylie's mother."


	11. The House of Brown

Chapter 11: The House of Brown

"If there's two things you should have learned about Harry at this point, it's that he protects the people that he cares about, and he doesn't care at all what you think about him doing so. I mean, the snobby British pureblood elite decided to make him marry seven wives with three goals in mind. First, they wanted to piss him off. Second, they wanted all the muggleborns to be disgusted by this and leave the magical world. Third, they couldn't imagine that he would settle for anything less than seven English pureblood princesses, as they would have done if they were in his situation. Taking seven purebloods for himself meant that all the important families with sons his age would have been furious. Harry said, 'piss off,' I'll take ten wives and I don't give a shit about your standards.

"Look at them up to this point. I was the typical pureblood princess, but he took me to essentially save the Ancient and Noble House of Greengrass from destroying itself. Tracey was a half-blood descendant of the disgraced House of Wenlock who was dead set on being an auror and not a homemaker. Susan Bones was acceptable in a sense, being of proper English stock from an impressive line, but she was still a half-blood and he saved her a lifetime of misery with the McLaggens. Katie is the half-Scottish daughter of a squib who loves flying and hates anything serious. Padma is of Indian descent and flaunts her intelligence instead of embracing the role of the meek housewife. Pansy was 'un-pure' and responsible for taking one strongly dark Ancient and Noble House and turning it to the light, and ending the Goyle line altogether, which held a Wizengamot seat. He clearly saved her from a horrible fate as well. Morag was an uppity Scottish pureblood who wasn't content to host little soirees. Megan was a Welsh half-blood. Gabrielle was a French veela. We certainly did not meet expectations.

"Here's another story which I think illustrates it perfectly. To keep track of everything that was going on financially, politically, and socially, Harry hired three separate assistants to work under Narcissa, who managed the combined calendar. For the financial assistant position, he hired Fay Dunbar.

"Fay was one of three muggleborns in our year to survive the war. None in the two years ahead of us or in the two years behind us did. Fay had family in America and fled there, Justin Finch-Fletchley comes from a wealthy family who hid in Switzerland, and Hermione Granger spent the whole year with Harry fighting. Dean Thomas survived as well, but he took a blood test at Gringott's and found out that he is actually a half-blood.

"Now, the goblins don't care about blood status, they just care about intelligence and respect and they liked working with Fay. They tried to poach her more than once, but she stayed on until she accepted a position with the Department of Tax & Finance at the Ministry. She would later become the head of the Department, then the first muggleborn Undersecretary to the Minister in history.

"For the political assistant, he hired Sarah Fawcett, she was from a light aligned minor pureblood house. She made the proper connections and ended up marrying into the House of Belby, her sister Audrey married Percy Weasley, and we all worked together to get the House of Fawcett a seat on the Wizengamot when there was an available opening.

"For the social assistant, he went down the whole saving people route again. Harry had dated Cho Chang during his fifth year, but it didn't go anywhere. Her mother was a Scottish muggleborn that her father met when he was the Chinese Ambassador. They fell in love and decided to stay here and raise their daughter in Britain. Early in the second blood war, Cho's mother was killed and her father decided to flee the country. Cho refused to go with him. He left anyway and disowned her to boot.

"Even with everything stacked against her, Cho, the daughter of a Scottish muggleborn and a foreigner, stayed and fought for the light. When the dust settled the light had won, but Cho still had no family. She was adopted into ours in a way, and after ten years of being his social assistant, Harry gave her the money she needed to open a restaurant in Godric's Hollow. She named it Eternal Glory. Harry's Tri-Wizard Trophy is on display there and there are photos of the tournament everywhere. Fleur, Harry, and Viktor Krum joined Amos and Cecilia Diggory at the grand opening. It was a beautiful gesture. She's married now and has a family of her own. I honestly don't know what happened to her father.

"So with those examples in mind it should come as no surprise at all that when there was a witch to be saved, Harry was going to do everything he could to save her.

"The House of Brown was one of twelve families to resurrect a House that didn't already have a Wizengamot seat. So when Wendell Brown claimed the House of Hammond, it was renamed the House of Brown. Wendell lost his son and daughter-in-law during the war and wife years before that, leaving only his granddaughter Lavender.

"At Hogwarts, Lavender was big on fashion, makeup, shopping, and all kinds of very girly things. She and her best friend Parvati, Padma's sister, could always tell you about the latest gossip at Hogwarts and, through their devotion to Teen Witch Weekly, the rest of the wizarding world as well. I wouldn't call it surprising when I found out that Lavender was among the group of students who followed Harry's lead in training for the war, but I did think it was a bit out of character for her.

"During her seventh year, she fell in love with Seamus Finnigan, a half-blood Irish wizard who managed to find a way to blow up just about everything. They looked like they were well on their way to being married, and then two things happened.

"Lavender fought at Hogwarts as well as anybody. She's quite powerful when she's emotional, but she was on the wrong end of a vicious attack from a werewolf named Fenrir Greyback. Greyback was known for turning more wizards than any other werewolf in Britain, for attacking children, and for attacking when he wasn't transformed. The attack on Lavender was one of those times where he wasn't transformed. It still led to some long term side effects for Lavender, she prefers her meat rare, she gets moody and angry when the full moon was near, and she has permanent scarring on her neck, shoulders, and back, but she isn't actually a werewolf.

"That didn't stop Seamus, but his mother did. The extinct House of O'Bannon returned in the form of the House of Finnigan and Moira Finnigan was determined to see it rise in prestige and influence. Seamus didn't care about the politics so he made his mother his regent, which put her in charge of the House. She was then able to, quite legally, remove every bit of funds from the Finnigan and O'Bannon accounts at Gringott's and put it in her own personal account and use it to control Seamus's life.

"Family rules can be adopted in one of two ways. First, all of age members of the house can hold a vote on a proposed rule and the majority rules, meaning only a majority vote in the future can overturn it. The second option is for the head of the family to make a unilateral decision that must be followed unless it is overturned later by the person with the Head of House title. Well Moira invited Seamus to a family meeting that he didn't attend because he didn't care and she decreed that male family members were only allowed to marry a pureblood witch in good standing who received at least six NEWTs or five NEWTs and a mastery, who would be able and willing to give birth to a minimum of two sons, and who wasn't marked by any dark creature. That last bit was aimed explicitly at Lavender, and since there were only two members of the House of Finnigan, Seamus could never overturn the rule, even though he took the regency away from his mother.

"Seamus was devastated and eventually, in front of his mother's face, made an unbreakable vow to never have any children so that the House of Finnigan would die with him. He hasn't spoken to her since. Harry gave him a business loan that he used to buy The Hog's Head in Hogsmeade when Aberforth Dumbledore retired. Seamus tore it to the ground and built it back up into a proper pub called The Centaur's Gaze which tailors to a much wider, and less shady, audience.

"Lavender on the other hand, spiralled into a terrible depression. Everybody had been telling her that the attack by Greyback and the side effects meant nothing to them, but it cost her the man she loved and she was in the process of giving up. Parvati tried and tried to hire Lavender to work at her boutique, but the offer was rejected every time.

"Lavender was basically doing nothing with her life. She saw friends occasionally, but didn't have a job, didn't have a passion, and didn't have any source of happiness. In late 2005, Wendell came down with the Dragon Pox. He was old enough that there really wasn't any coming back. But he couldn't leave his granddaughter in that state, so he reached out to Parvati and asked for her help.

"Parvati approached Padma and I and practically begged us to let Harry take on Lavender as a consort when her grandfather died. We had known about the troubles and agreed to sit down with her, Wendell, and Harry and see what we could work out. Even though he had probably only seen her a dozen times in the past eight years, Harry said he would try, but he had one single condition. So he sat down with Lavender one on one over dinner at her grandfather's home and told her what was being offered. She was so confused and so happy.

"He looked her right in the eyes and said, 'Lavender, there are a massive number of people out there who care about you, and I can make them all line up in front of you if you want, but it won't matter if you refuse to see it. My godson is the son of a werewolf. My brother-in-law was marked in the same manner as you by the same werewolf as you and he has three beautiful kids. The only thing I want to do is for us to wait until my godson comes of age to have any children, because I want Teddy to be their godfather. If you can agree to that single term, I'll do my best to make you as happy as you can be.'

"Lavender accepted. Her grandfather passed the next summer, and soon enough she became Lavender Danielle Brown, Consort to Lord Peverell. Lavender has still not regained the confidence to be seen in public that she used to have. She became a fashion designer and worked exclusively for Madam Malkin until she retired. Now she sells her ideas solely to my daughters, but Gabrielle's mother is trying desperately to get her to sell to a shop in Paris or to get my daughters to open a second location there.

"Obviously you have both met Rylie Piper, she works for Cho as the Assistant Manager at Eternal Glory for now, but whenever she's ready she plans to open her own restaurant in Axminster Square to cater to the lunch crowd there, she wants to call in Emeralds. Her brother, Landon Edward, is the youngest of all of Harry's children. He graduated from Hogwarts last year and has been working at the Werewolf Liaison Office in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. He says that his goal is to be the last employee in the office before they shut it down for good."


	12. The Past

Chapter 12: The Past

"As you've probably realized, your son is asking to marry into the single most influential family in wizarding Britain, potentially in the wizarding world. You aren't the first set of muggleborn parents to hear this story, and you probably won't be the last. I like Stephen and I think that he and Rylie make a wonderful couple, but the fact remains that most people who aren't of the wizarding world think that Harry's lifestyle is disgusting and barbaric, regardless of his lack of say in the matter.

"We want you to understand from our perspective why and how things happened as they did. We want you to understand the role that our family plays in the wizarding world, at every level. Doors will be opened to Stephen that would have never been there otherwise because of his father-in-law, but he knows that we absolutely won't stand for him abusing that privilege.

"Harry was an orphan raised in an abusive home. There is nothing in the world that means more to him than his family. Don't think for a second that the Parkinson and Goyle families are the only ones that he went to war with for hurting his family. And he doesn't just destroy you head on, he gets your to destroy yourself.

"I remember several years ago, Columbus and Humboldt Gibbon were holding regent positions for Lord Nicholas Selwyn, their brother-in-law. Columbus finally one day decided that he wanted to stick it to Harry and proposed a law that would make it illegal to marry what he called part creatures and would annul any existing marriages to part creatures. Obviously Lavender and Gabrielle were considered part creature according to Gibbon. Now everybody in the world knew this law wasn't going to pass, but Harry's response was legendary. He asked to speak in support of the bill and offered an amendment. He said, 'It's clear to me that Mr. Gibbon, the Babcock Regent, is trying to make me divorce two of my wives, so I propose that we add cows to the list of creatures that one cannot marry, so that Mr. Gibbon and his wife will be divorced as well.'

"Now nobody really cared about the Gibbon family, they were just lucky that all of Selwyn's family were dead or in prison and he didn't have anybody else to appoint as regent, but his wife was a Beamish, another family with a Wizengamot seat. So Gibbon declared line war and called in his allies. Lord Selwyn laughed him off, but Wiley Beamish and his family took offense. And they proceded to make an attempt to attack several of our family's businesses. And then Harry wiped the Beamish and Gibbon families off this earth.

"Harry will go to war for Stephen. There is no doubt in my mind. But Stephen has to be mentally prepared to be the son-in-law of Harry Potter. Harry's famous, and not just for the defeat of Voldemort. He was the driving force behind the successful privatization of quidditch, the focus on culture and education in the ministry, the re-structuring of the Hogwarts Board of Governors, the passing of legislation that made it illegal to discriminate based on blood status, the fostering of closer relationships with the muggle governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland and magical governments throughout the world, the likely end of werewolves in Britain in a humane manner by providing them free wolfsbane so they retain their mind and don't attack people during full moons, the creation of a Department of Muggle Affairs, fully funding the Auror force, the passage of libel and slander laws, the list goes on and on.

"He delivered an unforgettable speech on the floor of the Wizengamot in favor of the law that ended discrimination against muggleborns and I think you should be aware of at least part of it.

'Muggleborn witches and wizards provide a much needed economic boost to our world. Muggleborns with no other siblings inherit their parents' wealth and would add it to the combined wealth of the wizarding world if we would stop running them out of it. More importantly, we need their untainted magical blood. It hasn't been cursed by foul rituals or dark magic and it hasn't been choked by incest. It's fresh and powerful and can unlock magical abilities thought to be lost for good.

'Take a pureblood son of the Potter family and mix in a muggleborn witch and you get the first parselmouth in that family in twenty generations. Take a pureblood daughter of the Black family and mix in a muggleborn wizard and you get the first metamorp that family had seen in fourteen generations. Take the pureblood daughter of the Prince family, an offshoot of the Yaxleys, add in a muggle father and you get the first recorded natural occlumens born in Britain in one hundred and fifty years, in any family. Why is it that being a parselmouth, a metamorph, a natural occlumens, a natural legilimens, an aura reader, a diviner, an assessor, a sensor, an illusionist, or an empath is so rare? It's because it takes raw magic that we, as a world, do not possess anymore because we try to protect bloodlines and in that process we have corrupted our own magic.

'There were four wizards who played the primary roles in the Second Blood War. There was Albus Dumbledore, the leader of the light, son of a muggleborn witch, grandson of muggles. There was me, Harry Potter, the one prophesized to face the Dark Lord. I'm also the son of a muggleborn witch and the grandson of muggles. There was Severus Snape, allegedly Voldemort's most loyal and second in command and Headmaster at Hogwarts. In actuality a spy for the light. He was the son of a muggle father, grandson of muggles. And finally there was the Dark Lord Voldemort, born Tom Marvolo Riddle, son of a pureblood, inbred witch with little more power than a squib. Son of a muggle father under the influence of love potions. The Dark Lord was a half-blood, he was the grandson of muggles. In the most devastating civil war the British and Irish magical world has ever seen, all four principals were half-bloods. Why were the four of us so much more powerful, so much more influential, so much more gifted by magic, than all the rest of you?

'Hire the most competent person you can, regardless of blood status, and let magic do the rest. Invest in the most creative, innovate person you can find, regardless of blood status, and let magic do the rest. Marry the one you love, regardless of blood status, and let magic do the rest.'

"And those are the words we live by."


	13. The Future

Chapter 13: The Future

"Our work within the wizarding world is far from done. In fact, I really don't think we'll ever be done. We are always looking for ways to make our society better, smarter, and more prosperous. Our long term vision includes a representative chamber in the Wizengamot.

"After all the resurrected seats were reclaimed the Wizengamot sat at 116 members. The Minister for Magic also gets to appoint a seat for every ten active families on the Wizengamot always rounded up. So if we had 110 members, there would be eleven ministerial appointees, but if we had 111, there would be twelve appointees.

"We decided to try to get the number seats dropped to 60, and then create elections for another 60 seats. A rule was established that said for every two seats that died out, one would be added, and only somebody born to a son or daughter born of a House had claim to it. That means that Draco Malfoy, son of Narcissa Black could claim the seat, but Scorpius Malfoy, son of Draco Malfoy could not. If it came to it Scorpius, as the son of Astoria Greengrass, could take the Greengrass seat though. It's been a slow process, but we've dropped down substantially over the last several decades with many of the Dark Lord's followers and their Houses dying off.

"The Ancient and Noble Houses of Carrow, Lestrange, Nott, Rowle, and Yaxley are gone, with Travers soon to follow. The Houses of Beamish, Crabbe, Goyle, Max, Pennington, Thurkell, and Umbridge followed as well. With the defections of the Parksinsons, Malfoys, Fawleys, Higgs and Urquharts, the darker aligned Houses are on the decline. Our side took their losses as well, the Ancient and Noble House of Dumbledore is gone the Oglethorpe, Pokeby, Toke, and Hooch seats followed. Seamus Finnigan is all that remains of his House as well. Of the eight elevated Houses, six of them are squarely on our side: Vance, Fawcett, Robards, Diggle, McGonagall, and Farley. Edgecombe is a swing vote and Wilkes sides with the darker Houses.

"That also means we've had to elevate six Houses to Ancient and Noble status. The newly christened Ancient and Noble Houses of Belby, Goldstein, Johnson, and Ricketts stand for the light. We've managed to swing the Urquharts as the elder generation passed and the Blishwicks have become substantially more moderate after what is now known as the Parkinson's Crossing Affair occurred.

"We've set some goals for the future that we're hoping to achieve. First, we want to explore and embrace technomancy. It has the potential to provide a massive benefit to the magical economy. We also have been pushing for a while to start a wizarding day school of sorts. It would serve primarily to teach muggleborn children about how to write with quills, how owl post works, the statute of secrecy, and all kinds of other things that they should know about before they head off to Hogwarts.

"The most important thing we're trying to do, in my opinion at least, is to embrace our history, the good times and the bad. And this is an area where Stephen has a chance to make a huge difference. My generation and several dozen before it suffered at the hands of a ghost with a prejudice against goblins as our teacher of history. We've improved drastically, but there are so many things that just aren't well known and they bloody well should be. Most of the goblin wars don't paint wizards in a great light, but we should know them anyway so that we can learn from them. Very few people know how house elves, with their incredible magic, came to be dependant on witches and wizards. Even fewer know of the five pillars of the light who took a stand at Godric's Hollow against the Dark Lord Cyrus Wenlock and his Knights of Walpurgis and defeated them.

"The wizarding world is a wonderful place, with such incredible potential. I'm excited about what we've accomplished so far, but strongly looking forward to the future. Let me be the first to say, Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds, welcome to the family, and enjoy the ride!"


End file.
